Darn those flying ants....lol. I have had ants climb in, aphids drown, and flies get snagged under the hood of my tanks before. Usually they will be eaten, or pestered to death. I never found a problem with it, but it was annoying.. Any idea where those ants are coming from?

 

One Betta had a little fly go in under the hood. He was watching it. When it got down to two inches over the surface, he jumped and snatched it. He's hoping for more!

 

I had one of mine eat a mealworm that I accidentally dropped in his tank. He was just fine. They won't eat something they know they can't digest. Don't spray them! Mine get fruit flys all the time lol.

 

Lol, we have cats and a dog, we don't spray

 

Not true.. They will try to eat things they cannot digest: Mealworm shell stuck in a female's mouth. Luckily she was able to get it up the next day. Java moss through a baby betta's mouth and out his gill... I had to manually remove it.

 

I had to remove hair from Big Momma's mouth once. She hated me after. :lol:

 

The baby was relieved :lol: My female was so upset... After that I shelled mealworms x.x

 

Really? I believe you completely... Just sharing that my PK ate an entire mealworm, and I watched him deficate it. So he obviously digested (most of) it. But... Ants should be digestible unless they are those super big scary weird ones lol.

 

Yes, really. The shell is not going to be digested... Well, it can be... But think of it like gum for us. We swallow it and it takes YEARS to break down. Similar to fish (though different time frame)

 

Gum doesn't take years to break down- it moves out of us in the same amount time as everything else. http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/everyday-myths/gum-seven-years.htm I would compare it more to corn... We can't digest the cellulose in the shell... I think you all know what comes next .

The mealworm shell would likely be partially digested, would it not?

 

Matt this post is going in a disturbing direction lol.

 

Either way it is dangerous. It can get lodged in their throats, their intestine, etc.I know this first hand, as do a few members on here (who were the ones who taught me to deshell the mealies). Currently for informational purposes I am doing betta anatomy... And I can tell you everything is ever so tiny :lol:

 

I had a java moss piece get stuck the mouth/gills of a young fish too! Silly fish. I felt like a fish doctor removing it.

 

I had to dislodge a pebble out of my goldfish's mouth. :lol: